How to accees the LabVIEW Web Server using Chrome?

[THailey3]

You can also just copy the plugin, which is installed by the LabVIEW Run-Time Engine installer, to the Chrome plugin directory.

Copy from here: \National Instruments\Shared\LabVIEW Run-Time\Current LabVIEW Version\Browser Plugins

Paste to here:

• Windows Vista and higher: %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application
• Windows XP: C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application

The KB referenced at the beginning of the thread has been updated to reflect this info. Thanks for pointing this out!

[altenbach]

OK, after some testing there are still a few things not right!

It seems that for Chrome, the plugins folders is:

"%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application\Plugins", not "%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application" as stated here.

After I place the plugin in that corrected location, things work under Windows 7 and it is listed in the list of plugins here. (link only works from within chrome, of course).

Can somebody verify what the correct path really is and potentially update the instructions? Thanks!

Under Windows 8, nothing seems to work to get it running. Is there something I am missing??? I'll do some more tests... (and no, I am running chrome as a desktop application, NOT as a windows 8 application)

[Jeff-P]

Hi altenbach,

I will do some more testing and correct the path if it is wrong, thanks for following up. I got it working on Windows 8 when I tested this earlier, but I will start with a clean system and see what is required. I will follow up here and update that document with the results.

Regards,

Jeff Peacock 

Product Support Engineer | LabVIEW R&D | National Instruments 

[Jeff-P]

Ok so after some testing, it appears that chrome is very inconsistent with the location of its plugins folder.

I got all of the following cases to work by copying nplv2013win32.dll from \National Instruments\Shared\LabVIEW Run-Time\<Current LabVIEW Version>\Browser Plugins to the following directories (without Firefox installed)

Windows 7 64-bit: %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application\Plugins

Windows 7 32-bit: Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application\Plugins

Windows 8 64-bit: Program Files(x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\Plugins

The only thing I found consistent was that when I found Chrome.exe, it was always in Chrome\Application, and adding a Plugins\ folder next to it was the location that worked for me.

Does that get it working for you?

Thanks,

Jeff

[altenbach]

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@Jeff-P wrote:

Does that get it working for you?

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Thanks for all the research!!!

I'll try tonight on the W8 machine at home. (Obviously, I used the W7 locations on W8 in the past, which will apparently not work).

I wonder if the LabVIEW Browser Plugins (One for each supported LabVIEW version) could be offered in the chrome store as an alternative? 

[altenbach]

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@Jeff-P wrote:

Windows 8 64-bit: Program Files(x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\Plugins

Does that get it working for you?

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Thanks Jeff, this now seems to work fine in Windows 8, so we are all set. Time to update the documentation page again.

(Of course I had some stumbling blocks when testing.....

1. It seems if chrome is already open when adding the folder, it will not work until chrome is closed and restarted.
2. Yesterday I tried with LabVIEW 2012 and today I accidentally tried under LabVIEW 2013 (had both open). The web server was already started under 2012 yesterday. When Running the 2013 web publishing tool under this scenario, is says that the web server is not started. If I click start web server, the button greys and the "preview button" lights up. Pressing it gives an error message that the web server (no version number) has not been started, repeat at infinitum. If I select a different open front panel, both buttons are grey and nothing works. I think it would be useful to have a better indication what the error is in this scenario. When going to the NI Web-based configuration, shouldn't it tell me the LabVIEW version of the currently running application web server in some way? That might actually be useful.)

[Jeff-P]

Glad to hear it works now! I updated the documentation to reflect the different path in windows 8. I like your suggestion of offering the web plugins in the app store, that would hopefully improve the plugin installation experience for anyone who runs into this.

Thanks,

Jeff Peacock 

Product Support Engineer | LabVIEW R&D | National Instruments 

[altenbach]

Thanks. There is still a minor font issue on the reference page: The font seems to change in the middle of the path. See image.

[Jeff-P]

Fixed. I thought I double checked the font but that one slipped through. 

Thanks,

Jeff

[Jeff-P]

CAR 425753 discussed in this thread was fixed in  LabVIEW 2014.  For a more complete list of bugs fixed in LabVIEW 2014, check the LabVIEW 2014 Bug Fixes. You can download an evaluation copy of LabVIEW 2014 at http://www.ni.com/trylabview/ or if you have an earlier version of LabVIEW installed and an active SSP subscription, you will be able to download the latest version of LabVIEW through NI Update Service.

Regards,

Jeff Peacock 

Product Support Engineer | LabVIEW R&D | National Instruments | Certified LabVIEW Architect